As part of a city effort to crack down on liquor store violations, Dwight Way Liquor may soon sell its last bottle of booze. -more-
With former Congressmember Ron Dellums setting a self-imposed deadline of Oct. 1 to announce whether or not he will run for mayor of Oakland in next year’s elections, organizers of a “Draft Dellums” campaign have announced that they will conclude their petition drive at a Wednesday morning press conference at the Ron Dellums Federal Building in Oakland. -more-
The suspected shooter in the July 17 killing of Meleia Willis-Starbuck was captured in a Fresno apartment Friday as he hid in a bedroom closet. -more-
The owner of the two-story plywood shell with a house atop that South Berkeley neighbors call “The Flying Cottage” has won a major battle in her fight to resume construction on the building. -more-
For the second time in less than a week, UC Berkeley officers have ripped apart the latest incarnation of a long-standing clothing donation box at People’s Park. -more-
A compromise to keep Berkeley Iceland open hit a snag last week when the skating rink reported that a temporary outdoor refrigeration system the city ordered it to install would be too noisy for neighbors. -more-
With conversion to the new PeopleSoft management software causing problems in an overworked Peralta Community College payroll office, Peralta trustees have called for an update on the PeopleSoft conversion at tonight’s (Tuesday) trustee meeting. -more-
A gala dinner at HS Lordship’s Restaurant Sunday evening raised an estimated $83,000 for victims of Hurricane Katrina both in Berkeley and across the country. -more-
The Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees meets Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the district administrative headquarters, 333 E. 8th St., Oakland. Items on the agenda include: -more-
After a brief respite from his work of recovering the bodies of victims of Hurricane Katrina in Biloxi, Miss., Berkeley Fire Department Lt. Darren Bobrosky is at it again. -more-
The spirit of Katrina—accompanied by anger that government foresight and dollars could have blunted much of the hurricane’s damage—blew into San Francisco Saturday, stirring passions at the anti-war march and rally. -more-
One of the many nice things about Berkeley is our town’s neighborhood shopping districts. Their linear form is a legacy of the city’s early twentieth century development as a streetcar suburb. Their distinctiveness is a holdover of another sort: unlike much American retail, this city still abounds in unique mercantile enterprise, a lot of it locally owned and operated. -more-
Last weekend I took care of my 3 1/2-year-old nephew, Bryce. It was party, party, party for 49 hours straight. We went to three parks and several places of business. We threw a small tantrum in Ross Dress for Less, and we forgot (several times) how to share while playing with Clyiesha, Maynard, and Lil’ Bobby. But all in all we had a pretty good time. -more-
The agreement signed by the City and the University earlier this year provides a historic opportunity to work together on a range of community issues—from summer literacy programs to economic and urban development plans. -more-
On Tuesday night, Sept. 27, the Berkeley City Council will take up the planning process for a new Downtown Area Plan. The concept of a new Downtown Area Plan has generated quite a few letters and commentaries on the pages of the Berkeley Daily Planet, and also one lawsuit by Berkeley residents, (including the authors) against city officials and the Regents. We thought you might like a few facts about the Downtown Area Plan as envisioned by the City of Berkeley/UC regents Settlement Agreement: -more-
All across the nation people are collecting clothes for the needy. But in Berkeley they're throwing clean, freshly laundered clothing in dumpsters, locking the dumpsters, and threatening potential donors with misdemeanor tickets. -more-
A casual chat between a customer and the proprietor of a butcher shop about spousal murder ... an aggressive real estate investor torn between evicting a pregnant woman and her passive husband, (former neighbors), or reinstituting her old affair with the husband instead ... a suicide-prone go-fercum-hit-man in an amorous clinch with the monstrous realty lady while her butcher husband watches a strip-show in a seamy club. -more-
A documentary that takes aim at the business of genetically modified food will debut Friday at Shattuck Cinemas. -more-
In his 80s, George Stewart was a tall, slender gentleman with white hair and white moustache carefully trimmed, in a businessman’s style. I thought his observant blue eyes were his most interesting feature. He wore his years elegantly and spoke carefully, with a great concern for accuracy. In his speech, as in his writing, he was clearly not a man given to verbal extravagance. -more-
George Stewart changed my life. -more-
OK, it’s autumn. The warblers are migrating through town—Joe saw two yellow warblers and a Wilson’s, another yellow and an orange-crowned, two more yellows and a Townsend’s; we’ve seen Townsend’s and hermit warblers with gangs of Wilson’s warblers and the usual chickadees and bushtits in Tilden Park. The fog has a colder, Arctic-flavored edge to it in the evenings. The trees are starting to fall into step, the mulberries tossing leaves to the ground with an audible whack. -more-
On the day the Water Transit Authority announced it had received a major infusion of federal funds to all but guarantee a new ferry line in Berkeley, the City Council made clear that a terminal at the mouth of Gilman Street was off-limits. -more-
East Bay little leaguers could have five new playing fields by 2007, after the State Department of Parks awarded $2 million in grants Tuesday for the Gilman Street Playing Fields in Berkeley. -more-
Berkeley Unified got bad news and good news under the federal No Child Left Behind Act this week, with Rosa Parks Elementary entering the fifth year of low performance “program improvement” status, and John Muir Elementary winning national “blue ribbon” honors for program excellence. -more-
Despite its name, the San Francisco Foundation showed this week that it has not forgotten the East Bay. Three of the four recipients of the foundation’s annual awards this year at Tuesday’s Herbst Theater ceremonies were either from the East Bay or were recognized for activities undertaken in the East Bay. -more-
What began as one of the more contentious development/preservation battles in recent Berkeley history ends with both sides reasonably happy this Sunday when the First Presbyterian Church dedicates its new Geneva Hall and refurbished McKinley Hall facilities. -more-
A Berkeley organization that sends elementary school children from different income levels into nature together to help them better understand one another was awarded the Agape Foundation’s 2005 Peace Price. -more-
Two years ago when Carl Farrington and his four partners bought the three-unit building where they now live, they hoped to one day convert it to condos. -more-
The City Council meets Tuesday Sept. 27. Items on the agenda include: -more-
Five years ago Theresa Johnson of South Berkeley headed off to work at Federal Express, a healthy 30-year-old woman with two jobs and a fiancee. -more-
An article in the Sept. 20-22 issue about Jonathan Kozol mistakenly reported that a reception would precede his appearance at Martin Luther King Middle School tonight (Friday) at 7:30 p.m. There will be no reception. -more-
Police are have made no arrests in a suspected arson early Saturday that badly damaged the Tilden Park Golf Course offices. -more-
EDITOR’S NOTE: The avian flu virus, H5N1, has the potential to kill millions once it learns how to jump from human to human. So far, most people who become infected have worked with live chickens. But scientists say it’s a matter of time before avian flu makes the leap. The virus most recently surfaced in Indonesia, where four people have died. Pacific News Service and New California Media editor Andrew Lam spoke with Dr. David Relman, professor of medicine and of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University. Lam is author of Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora, forthcoming in October from Heyday Books. NCM is an association of over 700 print, broadcast and online ethnic media organizations founded by PNS and members of ethnic news media. -more-
HOUSTON (Sept. 13)—Outside the Houston Astrodome earlier this week, dozens of tents for State Farm Insurance, the Bank of America, Chase, Veteran’s Aid, and many more seemed to promise a quick return to something like shopping-mall normalcy. It was easy to sign up for a credit card. An ATM city had sprung up, so you could slide your new card in and get cash right away, and pay the bill later. -more-
When former Oakland resident, now Haiti-based filmmaker Kevin Pina and Haitian journalist Jean Ristil Jean-Baptiste were arrested Sept. 9 in Port-au-Prince while covering a police search of the home of a political prisoner/possible presidential candidate, the wheels of justice ground forward. -more-
http://www.jfdefreitas.com/index.php?path=/00_Latest%20Work -more-
At a recent performance, Bill Maher noted that 36 percent of Americans continue to believe that George Bush is doing a good job. The political comedian shook his head and wondered what it would take for them to change their opinion, “On [Bush’s] watch, we’ve lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two Trade Centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans.” Despite his many blunders the President continues to get stolid support from his base; he’s viewed positively by 81 percent of Republicans. One factor accounts for this loyalty: Bush supporters trust that he is a Christian. -more-
My children and I all have birthdays this week, mine sandwiched between theirs, usually neglected. This year my husband wanted to do something special so he packed up the kids and took them to New York for five days. My gift was to stay home alone and as it’s turned out, it has been a real treat. -more-
Even when you’re crawling around on the bottom by your own admission, it’s sometimes possible to sink to a new low. And so comes the item “Dellums vs. De La Fuente?” by East Bay Express columnist Will Harper in this week’s “Bottom Feeder” column about a possible heavyweight matchup in the 2006 Oakland mayoral race. -more-
John Gertz’s commentary titled “Anti-Israelism: Only in Berkeley” misses the mark on multiple levels. While the foundation of some observations are valid, his assumptions about people he doesn’t understand destroys any sense of context. -more-
Again I find myself having to respond to a commentary liberally spiced with mistruths and disinformation written by Tim Lubeck, an employee of Berkeley Honda (owned by Stephen and Tim Beinke and Steve Haworth.) Mr. Lubeck claims he is a service writer at Berkeley Honda. This is the person customers count on to tell them the truth about what services and or repairs are needed on their cars. If this commentary represents how he does his job at Berkeley Honda, I would hope he get more training quickly. Perhaps the fact that he acts like an assistant service manager and is being paid a guaranteed wage in the six-figure range when the old service writers were being paid well within five figures may explain some of the statements that Mr. Lubeck makes on behalf of his “benevolent” employers. By the way, nobody walked away from a six-figure job at Berkeley Honda; only the non-union new hires such as Mr. Lubeck were offered that kind of money. -more-
Amichai (Ami) Kronfeld’s death on Sept. 1 deeply saddened the extensive group of his family, friends, and colleagues here and abroad. It represents a major loss to the activist peace community. -more-
“In our town, we like to know the facts. About everybody.” -more-
Our Town author Thornton Wilder, winner of three Pulitzer Prizes, best remembered for his stage portraits of small town American family life, went to Emerson Grammar School in Berkeley’s Elmwood District, and was an alumnus of Berkeley High School class of 1915. -more-
I have to say at the outset that I’m an old friend of Jerry Carlin, indeed, a fellow realist and sometime “plein air” artist. Such closeness and affinity make it difficult to lash-out at the odd picture or period that I don’t really like, as I probably would faced with half a cow suspended in formaldehyde in a plate-glass tank! Fortunately I love and admire most of Jerry’s work, so am urging readers to go see some of it for themselves, especially in such an enjoyable setting. -more-
A few weeks ago we received an email from a member of the Downtown Berkeley Association’s design committee asking if the Planet’s opinion pages would be available for a forum on the future of downtown Berkeley. The idea, not yet adopted A few weeks ago we received an email from a member of the Downtown Berkeley Association’s design committee asking if the Planet’s opinion pages would be available for a forum on the future of downtown Berkeley. The idea, not yet adopted by the DBA or fully fleshed out, was that there would be a two-part process. First, the public would be asked to submit ideas in writing for publication: a kind of “civic visioning exercise” to tap the creativity of Berkeley citizens to think about what Berkeley Downtown might be. That would be followed by a well-conceived scientific phone poll to gauge citizens’ preference for what should be happening downtown. -more-
A professor friend called me on Thursday morning, furious. She’d just heard a radio report on a committee formed to advise the University of California Board of Regents which is recommending that seven U.C. executives, who already make more than $350,000 a year, now need to have raises funded by private donations. Why did that make her so mad? Well, she’s the chair of a science department at a state university, and with seven years experience and a four-course teaching load she has yet to take home $60,000 a year. I was already planning this editorial on the topic, because I’d seen an excellent piece by Tanya Schevitz in the Chronicle earlier in the week with all the facts and figures. An example of shocking data: one senior vice president, a committee member who is listed as making $350k, actually pays taxes on more than $450k, probably because of bonuses on top of his salary. And, if we are to believe the report, he and his cohorts want even more. That’s greed, plain and simple. Obscene greed, actually. -more-
